'Capote' shines

I am increasingly impressed by the ability of Hollywood to create biopic masterpieces about luminaties throughout history. The most recent offering, "Capote," stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman in what is the finest performance he has ever given and one of the best films I have see in 2005. This year is shaping up to be a great one for cinema.

It will be some time before "Capote" makes thr rounds to wide release, but when it does, be sure to catch a screening as soon as possible. Hoffman's portrayal is exact, and the cinematography and direction help sell this film's tone. The piece is about the life of Truman Capote, mainly the years after he wrote "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and decided to write his signature work, "In Cold Blood."

That piece changed American literature forever by introducing the genre or literary journalism, the nonfiction novel. In it, Capote writes about the brutal murder of a family of four in their West Kansas farmhouse by two men on the prowl for money. It is clear through the book -- and especially in the film -- that Capote holds a special place for one of the killers, Perry Smith, and simultaneously shows affection and attachment as he gathers information as well as using the men to further his own literary ambitions. The film demonstrates this relationship well, walking the fine line so as not to play up one angle or another.

The angle of Truman Capote's childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee, and her support of Truman, is also well done. Just as her star begins to rise with the publication of the masterpiece "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the follow-up film version, Capote seems to have a subtle and unstated need to be the brightest light in the room. It's beautiful.

The fact that this film is based on a true story, on real people, makes the performances all the more astonishing. It would have been a fine film if it had been fiction, just as "In Cold Blood" would have been a fine book if it were fiction. But, as Capote showed America and the world, the real world can be just as compelling.

-- Issaquah, Wash.